Escape Hatch 024: Meet Me In Gotham

Flight or Fright, a collection of terrifying and turbulent stories set in the unfriendly skies, is available now, pretty much everywhere. It’s got some high-flying classics like “The Horror of the Heights” by Arthur Conan Doyle and “Nightmare at 20,000 Feet” by Richard Matheson. There’s also new stuff, including a brilliant original story by my Dad, and, uh, one by your faithful correspondent. I actually kinda think “You Are Released” is one of my better stories — I’ve taken to reading it at appearances because I think it plays well to a crowd.

Popular Riverdale Senior, Archie Andrews, photographed here with an unidentified companion, less than an hour before he allegedly took an axe to friends and family in the local malt shoppe. Police have asked citizens with information about the unknown possible co-conspirator to come forward.

Speaking of comics, it looks like I’ll be at the Javits Center with my soul brother Gabriel Rodriguez this October for New York Comic Con. I don’t have the full details yet, but I expect we’ll sit in on a couple panels, talk a bit about the forthcoming Netflix adaptation of Locke & Key, and do some signings.

I’ll also be doing a low-key appearance in London at the end of October, which I’m not cleared to talk about yet, so let’s pretend I didn’t bring it up.

I’m looking forward to both. More information as it comes in.

No, I’m not going to start writing Archie anytime soon.

I had a great talk with Matthew Turbeville over on his site Writers Tell All… a swiftly growing resource for aspiring wordsmiths, featuring interviews from the likes of folks like Riley Sager, Laura Lippman, and Megan Abbott. I don’t know that I said anything all that interesting, but he was a generous interviewer, and anyone who has a poke around his site is sure to encounter some worthwhile thoughts about suspense, genre, character, and craft. Go have yourself a look.

Huuuuuuuuge CAPE: FALLEN spoiler ahead, don’t go any further if you want to preserve the suspense. If this is where you get off, thanks so much for riding along with me for another issue of Escape Hatch. We’ll catch you around, kiddo!
If you go any further, remember, I warned you.
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FUUUUUUUUUUUCK.

I hope you’re keeping up with The Cape: Fallen, because artist Zach Howard has been turning in some of the most stunning work being done by anyone in comics today. We are, truly, not worthy, and the grisly vision featured above (and soon to be framed on my office wall) is the proof.

Need a little Zach Howard original art for your own wall? Hey, nothing spiffs up a room quite like one of his pin-ups, covers, or sequential masterpieces. You don’t just have to dream about it. Zach offers a selection of his original work — pages from Rom, Venom, Wolverine, and his own personal titles, The Capeand Wild Blue Yonder — right here.

I think that’s all I got for you this time out. Getting any good reading done? If you’re scratching around for your next all-consuming literary obsession, can I recommend Madeline Miller’s brilliant The Song of Achilles? Or if you’re in more of a gaslamp-and-carriage kind of mood, maybe consider Anthony Horowitz’s astounding work of literary prestidigitation, Moriarty?

Wow, what about that latest issue of Saga? My heart has been torn out and thrown back in my face. Damn you, Brian K. Vaughan… and please don’t let the Intermission take one day longer than it needs to. We need you.